Just a Kid
by Lune-Solei
Summary: After her attempted coup, Mariemaia is recovering in a hospital room when she recieves an unexpected visitor. Heero, Mariemaia friendship.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam Wing

**Rating:** G

**Characters: **Heero, Mariemaia

**Archived:** theoriginal-ist, livejournal

**Author's Note:** This was written in response to the gw500 challenge of "Kid" on livejournal. I have never written a fic from Mariemaia's perspective (or even with Mariemaia in it) before so I hope that I did her justice. I look forward to reading your thoughts on it.

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It was amazing what one could hear from a hospital bed. How no one seemed to realize that the occupant of the bed was in fact awake, or could hear or see. It never seemed to matter at all and that was just fine by her, or so she claimed silently. She didn't care how she was treated because she had been used and lied to and that hurt more than knowing what people really thought.

"She's just a kid," she heard the nurses' murmur as they passed her private room.

"She's just a bloodthirsty brat," she heard the guards at her door grumble on rotation.

"She's just a simple, misled child who should be pitied, not threatened." That one was from Miss Relena and she heard it on the television set one day when she'd been flipping through programs after her surgery. She had narrowed her eyes at the young woman on the screen and shut off the set with a sniff.

No one said it to her face of course. No one showed any sign of realizing how young she actually was. The nurses' all treated her as just another patient, albeit a bit more roughly it seemed. They fluffed her pillows, brought her juice and a pitcher of water, and made sure they ate. Of course she never wanted her pillows fluffed, hated orange juice, the water was always warm, and the food arrived sporadically. Unless Lady Une or other members of Preventers were there. Or maybe, that was just the way she saw it.

The guards never looked in on her more than necessary. They stood in the hall and glared at passersby or played dice and cards with the orderlies. Sometimes she wanted to tell Lady Une about it, but it seemed such a trivial thing that she couldn't bring herself to whenever her guardian visited. Miss Relena was another matter altogether and she vowed silently that as soon as she was up and walking she would rectify the Vice Foreign Minister's sympathies. She should not be threatened or pitied because she was still physically a child.

"I wonder why most people find it so hard to imagine that you're _just a kid_."

She frowns, and turns her head to the door without even realizing it. Her blue eyes are narrowed and a strand of red hair obscures her view, but she'd like to imagine secretly that she resembles her father with that look. Dekim always told her she took after him and not her mother but she'd never seen it in the pictures she'd kept hidden from her grandfather.

"What do you want?" she questions coldly.

"I'm someone else who surprised the military leaders by being _just a kid_."

"I know _who_ you are Heero Yuy. I'm asking _what_ you want." She turns her face back to the window she'd been staring out of. The sky is deep blue and she can see a bird on the ledge. She envies it its freedom at the moment. "Have you come to see the weak crumble?"

"No, that's Wufei." The reflection in the glass smirks and she feels her eyes roll. "I've come to see how you are. And…to apologize."

The last words catch her by surprise and she turns to face him. She won't speak though, just stares and wonders at the appearance of The Perfect Soldier in her hospital room. She has not seen him since Brussels though she heard he'd been in the hospital as well. In fact, his appearance suggests it highly. His face is the pale color usually associated with the sickly (though for all she knows of him this could be his natural skin tone) and his eyes look bleak and haunted.

"What do you have to apologize for?" she queries finally. Her voice is listless, her countenance tired.

"For not killing you when I had the chance," he says deadly calm. Her eyes widen only a little, showing her surprise and he sinks heavily into the chair Lady Une or Sally usually occupy when they visit. "I could have spared you the looks and the pity and the false sympathy," he murmurs, gesturing with a bandaged arm to the muted television screen.

Her eyes follow the direction of his swept arm and take in the picture of yet another press conference involving Miss Relena and the Preventers. She snorts rudely and turns her attention back to her much more interesting guest. "And what would you know of pity and false sympathy Heero Yuy? You and your fellows are heroes to the world by defeating me, better yet by making me a _cripple_."

His eyes flash at that and she swallows. "I did not cripple you Mariemaia; you crippled yourself by saving Relena." His legs stretch out in front of him. "And I know plenty of false sympathy and traitorous thoughts. Gundam pilots aren't exactly a favorite. There were plenty of people who pitied us our occupation and age. There are many that still do."

"How noble." He sets something down on the table next to her and she has to twist to catch the glimpse of black metal that sets her heart beating faster. She hopes that the nurses don't decide to suddenly care about her well being. "Are you going to kill me now?"

"It seems a waste," he murmurs off handedly. She forces herself to sit up so that she is level with him. He makes no move to grab the gun and it sits there between them, slightly out of sight but ominous anyway. "I do not want to kill you Mariemaia."

"I do not want to die…Heero."

He gives a curt nod, grabbing the gun and hiding it somewhere on his person. Mariemaia isn't sure where exactly and she doesn't feel confident enough to question. He offers her a smile as he stands, steady and calm, still a soldier in a world of peace. Peace she had been used to destroy. She closes her eyes before slowly reopening them. He is still there.

"Will we be friends, Heero?"

He looks startled and she smiles. "I don't know."

"I hope so," she whispers, watching him. She reaches out, gripping his hand and he stares at their clasped fingers. "We've been given a second chance. You've given me a second chance. I can start over, with someone who cares about my well being and not my genealogy. Thank you Heero."

He does something no one since her mother or Uncle Trowa has done. He leans over and ruffles her hair. Not even Lady Une has gotten to that level of familiarity. But perhaps, threatening to kill someone entitles someone to certain privileges. She isn't sure yet, but she finds she doesn't exactly mind.

"You're welcome…_kid_," he says. And she hears the teasing lilt and the mischievous glint in the usually stoic eyes and she can't help but giggle and laugh. Because she _is_ still just a kid, even if she almost ruled the world.


End file.
